Votes of Confidence

Recently there has been much
speculation in Parliament and the media about Green Party
vacillation on support for the Government on confidence and
supply issues as a result of the current debate on the GM
issue. Some statements speak of the Greens potentially
withdrawing support on 'confidence and supply'.

National
MP Wyatt Creech says there are two specific opportunities
for a confidence vote in Parliament.

"The first
opportunity is the vote on the motion attached to the
address and reply (immediately following an election) or the
PM's statement (in the other years of the term). That
debate must occur at the beginning of each Parliamentary
year and the vote is held at the conclusion of the
debate.

"The second opportunity is votes on the annual
budget debate (at each stage) and the other associated
appropriation bills (generally termed 'supply'). These
include votes on the various stages of the budget debate and
imprest supply and supplementaries. The 'financial veto'
can be used to deal with unsatisfactory (from the
Government's point of view) amendments at the Committee of
the Whole Stage (the Estimates debate).

"Apart from those
two situations, where confidence arises as a matter of
course, a confidence vote arises only where the Prime
Minister declares in advance that a vote on a particular
bill will be regarded as a vote of confidence.

"The
convention is that where a government loses on a vote of
confidence, the Leader of the Government will go to the
Governor-General offering their resignation.

"Apart from
the two specific situations mentioned above, confidence
votes in New Zealand are rare. Sometimes threats to regard
a vote as a confidence vote are used to keep potentially
wayward MPs in line. However, Prime Ministers seldom go so
far as to declare issues 'confidence'," Mr Creech
said.

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